An Ordinary Water Tribe Custom
by Spankbending
Summary: Aang is overwhelmed with guilt for lying about the map to Hakoda, and ends up asking Katara for an unusual way to cure his remorse. WARNING: SPANKING!


**So I was well into writing this one, only to realize that it doesn't really make sense considering Aang's comments to the Omashu guard as Bonzu Pippenpaddleobsikopalips. This irritated me greatly, but by this point I was so far into the story that I couldn't leave it unfinished. So, just ignore that little detail and enjoy the story for what it's worth. Perhaps Bonzu will show up in a different story...**

Katara was washing Appa, a usually mundane chore that was made considerably more entertaining due to her ever increasing Waterbending abilities. Studying the "traded" Waterbending Scroll closely had allowed her to master most of the moves, and simpler techniques like streaming the water were becoming a breeze for her. She relished any opportunity to practice, and immediately volunteered when Aang suggested they clean Appa, and the sky bison was quite appreciative of her efforts, lowing the sky bison equivalent of a relaxed, comfortable sigh.

"There you go," she said, finally satisfied with her work. "Nice and clean!"

Appa bellowed out his thanks, walked onto the shore, and violently shook the remaining water from his fur, dousing Katara in an impromptu shower. She remained in the river, wearing nothing but her bathing suit, which was now thoroughly soaked. After a sarcastic "Thanks, Appa!", followed by a deep rumble of bison laughter, Katara headed back to the campsite.

Aang was laying down on a log, playing some sort of mindless marble game with Momo, his pet flying lemur. She tried to sneak past him, but he turned his head up, said "Hi!" and then laughed. "I see you decided to take a bath too!" he chuckled.

"Ha ha, very funny," Katara retorted, playfully sticking her tongue out at him. Then she went inside her tent to change into her normal, not-drenched clothes.

As she swapped outfits, only one thing stayed the same; her mother's necklace. This had only recently been returned to her by Aang, after a battle with Zuko the Fire Prince, his uncle and a rather intimidating bounty hunter with a whip and a giant mole creature. It had been her most precious possession, the last she had of her mother Kya. It was sometimes a painful reminder, but Katara would never trade it, not even for a million gold pieces. It was priceless. That it had been recovered by Aang, both her best friend and the Avatar destined to save the world, made her treasure it even more.

Once she was back into her standard Southern Water Tribe tunic (made from Polar Leopard pelts and dyed the signature blue from octopus ink), Katara realized that Appa's drying off had ruined her hair. Her meticulously organized braid had several hairs undone. Fortunately, it was much easier to undo the braid than to fix it, so she decided to let her hair hang freely from her head, placing the beads and other assorted hairpins into a bag.

Katara walked outside, and then noticed that Sokka was not there; she had not been paying attention when she came back to camp, as her mind was preoccupied with changing clothes. _I guess fishing isn't going so well_, she thought, and decided to prepare soup with what remained of their supplies, since everything else was done. If Sokka returned with meat, excellent. If not, at least Aang, the dedicated vegetarian, would be happy.

She looked at the Airbender as she made the stew, and noticed that he was not happy right now. He was quiet, and laid down on the log looking at the sky, clearly stressed out. This bothered Katara; stress wasn't becoming for Aang, who was usually quite active, talking fast and moving faster. Momo seemed to notice his dour mood as well; he had stopped playing with the marbles and was now poking his ribs, trying unsuccessfully to get a response from him.

Katara abandoned her cooking and went over to check on him. "Aang, are you okay?" she gently inquired.

"Not really," he answered somberly.

"What's wrong?" she asked in a comforting, reassuring tone.

The Avatar did not speak or move for a few seconds. Katara wondered if he would be willing to tell her what was troubling him, but resolved not to pry if he didn't answer. Aang bore an awesome responsibility, and though he seemed to take it in stride, Katara wondered if it ever became too overwhelming for him.

His duties as Avatar turned out to be the farthest thing from his mind. "Katara, I'm sorry about hiding the map to your father," he finally answered, repeating an apology he must have said a dozen times in the last three days since they had left the abbey and Bato behind. What made it worse is that he only seemed to say it to her, and it was starting to become very annoying.

"Aang, you've already apologized for that!" she reminded him exasperatedly. "Several times!"

"I know, but I just feel _so _BAD about it," he exclaimed, sitting up as he did so. "I can't stop thinking about it. I feel like no matter how many times I say sorry it's never going to be enough!" Aang now hung his head in his hands, looking at his bare feet and then back at her.

Katara looked in his eyes for a second, and then looked away in something resembling pity. Trying to set aside her annoyance and see where Aang was coming from, she imagined how she would feel if the roles were reversed. Then, she remembered one incident from when she was eight years old, when she had felt the exact same nagging guilt, the kind that doesn't ever seem to go away.

"I guess I understand that. I've felt that way before, too," she confided, hoping that knowing his guilt was a mutual, shared feeling would make it less daunting.

"You have?" Aang responded, clearly implying that he wanted her to extrapolate. She sat next to him on the log and considered whether to tell the story. _He doesn't need to know _all _the details_, she decided, but felt that sharing would make him feel better.

"Yeah, one time when my Mom was out doing chores, I sneaked into her jewelry bag and tried some stuff on," she began, and Aang listened intently. "I wasn't _supposed _to play with them, since they are easy to lose and really valuable. She had already had to punish me for playing with them before, but I just wouldn't listen. But this time, I accidently lost one of her beautiful whale-tooth earrings, with a pearl carved in the center." Even the memory of this terrible event caused Katara great shame.

"Oh no!" Aang expressed the feelings she had felt when it happened. "Did you get in trouble?"

"No! I put everything away and Mom never caught me. She thought I was penguin-sledding with Sokka."

"Wow, what a lucky break, huh?" Aang concluded, smiling brightly.

"Lucky?" she yelled in spite of herself."Are you kidding? It was terrible!"

"Terrible? How?" Aang laughed as he said this, as if he had forgotten the guilt he was having and that she was silly for feeling terrible about _not _getting in trouble. Upon reflection, Katara did feel it was kind of stupid, but that just made her more annoyed that Aang couldn't let this map thing go.

"For three whole days she never suspected me. I had done something wrong and gotten away with it. I felt so guilty, but I was too afraid to tell her the truth!" she continued, and Aang's joyful expression turned gloomy as he realized what she was feeling.

"What happened?" he prodded.

Katara sighed, somewhat reluctant to continue from this point, as it involved her in a rather embarrassing situation. "Well, I couldn't sleep because I felt so bad, and I just couldn't take it anymore. So when Mom was tucking me in one night, I finally told her what I did."

Aang looked impressed. "Wow, that must have taken a lot of courage."

"I didn't feel brave. I couldn't even look her in the eye as I told her," she lamented. "When I was done, I looked at her and she was angry. But she hugged me, and told me she was proud of me for telling the truth, and that she loved me so much. She said she wasn't happy that I played with the jewelry, but that the earring didn't matter to her as much as I did." Katara could momentarily feel her heart grow warmer as she remembered how much her mother loved her.

"That just made me feel worse for not telling her in the first place," she finished.

"Yeah, you should have," Aang agreed, but not in a cruel way; he was simply affirming her thoughts. "But hey, at least it turned out alright in the end!"

"Well, yes and no," she let out before she could catch herself. _Shoot!_

"What do you mean?" Aang asked, clearly puzzled.

Katara winced, both from the memory and the fact that she was about to tell Aang about it. "I still got a good spanking for playing with the jewelry," she said, and now she couldn't help but picture her eight-year-old self squirming across her mother's lap, pajama pants pulled down to her knees, receiving the firm discipline that she knew she had earned. She was quite sure that Aang was imagining it also, and this made her blush.

"A spanking?" he parroted, sounding surprised and curious.

Katara blushed even brighter, and wished she could turn invisible."Yeah, but I deserved it, so it wasn't any big deal," she forced out, speaking quicker than normal in her embarrassment.

"No, I mean, what's a spanking?"

This caught Katara completely off-guard, and she stuttered, "You, you don't know what a spanking is?"

"That's the first time I've ever heard of one!" Aang assured her.

_Well that's just great!_ However, as she thought about it, his ignorance about it didn't really surprise her that much. He _had _been raised by pacifist monks, and they probably wouldn't resort to corporal punishment on the misbehaving young boys. Katara was grateful that Aang wasn't picturing her backside being swatted, but dreaded explaining it to him.

"Okay, um, in the Southern Water Tribe, when young children misbehave or disobey their parents, we usually get a spanking," she said candidly, sounding more like a tour guide explaining customs than someone with first-hand experience. "Our parents make us lie down on our stomachs across their laps, and then they slap our bottoms over and over, really hard," she described, hoping Aang would get the picture and she wouldn't have to add, W_ith only our underwear covering our sorry butts._

"What?" Aang gasped in repulsive shock."That sounds awful!"

"Yeah, and in two of my spankings, my mom used a whale-tooth hairbrush and that hurt something fierce," Katara recalled, not paying attention to Aang's disgust. "But then, Sokka told me that Dad actually used a seal-leather belt on him once, so I guess I was lucky."

"You've got to be joking, right?" Aang said in disbelief. Katara looked at him, and realized that Aang seemed angry that his friends had been spanked as children, as if this was some kind of horribly cruel punishment and not a routine disciplinary occurrence. For some reason, this made Katara feel very defensive; who was Aang to judge how her parents raised her?

"It's not as bad as it sounds, really," she lied; it _was _as bad as it sounded, though Aang clearly thought it was worse. "I usually cried when I got spanked, and it hurt to sit for a while afterward, but the pain didn't last very long and after it was over, I knew I was forgiven and it wouldn't be brought up again."

Aang gave no response, save for a dark look that showed her arguments were falling on deaf ears.

"Besides, my parents were never unfair; I don't think I ever got a spanking that I didn't deserve," Katara snapped in irritation. She was desperate to make her parents seem loving and kind. ""And it wasn't like I was eager to misbehave again, so they didn't happen often." Sokka got spanked a lot more than I did. He's stubborn," she joked, hoping the levity would brighten Aang's mood.

He seemed to be calming down, so perhaps she was getting through to him. "I don't know, it seems wrong to hit children,"

Exasperated, Katara corrected him. "It's not hitting, it's spanking. Children are allowed to tell the tribal elders if they think they've been spanked too hard, and the penalty for parents who do is a whipping on the back in front of the whole tribe, so most parents are responsible." The fact that abusive parents were flogged seemed to ease Aang's concerns. "Mom and Dad were fairly gentle with us, although Sokka once tried to convince the elders he'd been unfairly punished. It was _so_ embarrassing," she thought aloud, recalling her brother demanding an elder inspect his bottom closer.

Aang said nothing for several moments, apparently contemplating this revelation in her upbringing. Katara still wasn't sure how she felt about Aang picturing her getting spanked. She was embarrassed, and a little upset that he had reacted so harshly to this knowledge. She began to wonder if maybe Aang had a point; was it wrong to spank little children, even as occasional, well-deserved discipline? It had simply been a fact of her culture for so long, she had never questioned it. Now she wasn't so sure...

"So after your mom spanked you for playing with her jewelry, what happened?" Aang queried, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence.

Katara let out a sigh, and then thought back to that night, where a sobbing little girl with a very red bottom had been soothed and comforted by a mother who only seconds ago had been anything but comforting. "Well, I cried for a little bit, as always. Then Mom hugged me and dried my tears, told me she loved me and asked me not to disobey her again. She tucked me in and kissed me goodnight, and I slept very soundly for the first time in three days," she recounted, feeling the moral confusion leave her as she explained it. Remembering how safe she felt in her mother's arms assured her that she had never been treated cruelly or unfairly.

"So, you didn't feel guilty anymore?" he asked in a deadpan tone.

"Nope," she answered cheerfully. "I had been properly punished and Mom forgave me. The next day I was happy as could be, and Mom and I played with her make-up for most of the day." She then chuckled and added, "Although, I did have to sit on a pillow the whole time."

Aang once again sat in stoic contemplation, and this time Katara simply ignored him. It was funny how a conversation about Aang's over apologetic nature had led them down this path. Katara hadn't even thought about spanking in years. Ever since Mom was killed and Dad left to fight in the war, discipline hadn't been a concern; there was no time to act childish enough to earn a spanking. The war had forced her to grow up, to learn self-discipline in the absence of true consequences. Only Aang's appearance in her life had brought her out of this necessary early maturity.

Finally, the young Airbender spoke again. "Katara...?" he began, obviously stammering over whatever it was he was about to say.

"Yes, Aang?" she responded nonchalantly.

Aang closed his eyes. He inhaled slowly and exhaled slower. He opened his eyes and cautiously met hers. "Katara, could you spank me?" he asked, very quietly.

Her brain stopped working for a second; she was positive her mind was playing tricks on her.

"WHAT?" she balked, louder than she intended but quieter than she really wanted to.

"Would you give me a spanking?" he asked again, this time looking her straight in the eyes, more confidant in his request now that he had said it once. His increased nerve only weakened Katara's. She could not believe her own ears, and wildly started shaking her head.

"What? No! Why would I do that?" she screamed, feeling more humiliated than she had in the entirety of the conversation.

"Because I deserve one for hiding the map from you and Sokka," he stated in a wretched matter-of-fact way. Katara stood up and grabbed clumps of her dark brown hair in a mortified spat.

"Aang, don't be ridiculous! I can't spank you!" she shrieked at him, choking on the word "spank", the mere thought of doing such a thing to him causing her inner anguish.

"Why not?" he whined, sounding more like a toddler who had been denied their favorite sweet than an adolescent asking to be...punished.

"BECAUSE," she vociferated, furious at him for even asking such a stupid question. It was ludicrous! Absolutely out of the question, not happening. Why was he even suggesting this ridiculous idea, anyway? "And what happened to it being wrong to hit children?" she demanded, no longer able to keep her thoughts to herself.

"I'm not really a child anymore," he responded with a touch of indignation, as as if that was supposed to encourage her to carry out what he had asked for.

_That's debatable, _Katara thought. "Aang, I can't, I'm not your mother!" she pointed out plainly, hoping this would put the matter to rest.

"So? I never really had a mom," he countered. "I was raised by monks. And it's not like you don't _act _like you're my mom half the time."

Katara groaned at this simple, overlooked detail. She also could not deny that she acted motherly towards him; she couldn't really help it. But that didn't mean she'd discipline him like he was her child! "Aang, I..." she began to protest.

"Katara, _please_?" he interrupted, and this brought Katara to her breaking point.

"Why on earth would you _want_ a spanking? Spankings hurt, the point is to be good so that you _don't _get spanked!" she ranted. Surely he would relent upon hearing how preposterous his idea was, and she could move on with her day. Katara lamented ever bringing the subject up.

To her surprise, Aang barely hesitated to shout his answer. "Because I feel terrible about what I did!" Aang's arms were in the air, and small lines of tears were escaping his eyes, and Katara suddenly felt all of her anger leave. "You said that after your mom spanked you, you didn't feel guilty anymore! I don't want to feel guilty, either," he continued, wiping away his tears.

To her surprise, Katara found that she understood where he was coming from. Guilt was a terrible thing; she knew that. He was correct in his assessment that a spanking was a cure for guilt; she certainly never gave her misbehavior a second thought after a trip across her parents' knees. Besides, was this really any different than what she had done by telling her mother about the earring? She knew that admitting to it would earn her a spanking, but she did it anyway; she pretty much asked for it. Perhaps it had been her subconscious mind telling her she needed one; he was only being more direct, more honest.

She stammered through her next words."I...guess that makes sense. Sort of. But Aang, I can't spank you."

"Why not?" he retorted, pleading with her to see things his way.

And the more she thought of it, the more she realized there wasn't any real reason she couldn't. He was asking for it. Literally. She also couldn't deny that he deserved it. Besides, she wouldn't really hurt him. Wasn't it far more cruel to let him suffer in his despair? Could a spanking possibly be preferably to that?

"Are you _sure_ you want me to spank you?" she asked tentatively, still not sure if she would do so.

The Airbender did not hesitate to nod his assent, though it was rather feeble.

"Aang, if I do this, I'm going to do it properly," she warned, and to her surprise she meant it. "It's going to hurt. Are you absolutely certain?" she questioned him one more time.

Once again, he nodded, more sure of himself this time. "It won't hurt as much as when you and Sokka were going to leave me to see your Dad."

And that was logic that Katara could comprehend fully. Indeed, she couldn't picture herself away from Aang, which is why she had returned to him instead of leaving to see her Dad. Compared to leaving him, a spanking seemed like nothing. How could she not?

"Alright. I'll give you a spanking," she finally agreed, though Aang did not seem too enthused that he had persuaded her. "I'm still kind of mad at you, anyway. Maybe this will help me forgive you, too," she joked.

He smiled weakly. "Thank you, Katara," he said, though he seemed to have lost his confidence now that the reality that what he had asked for was about to happen sunk in.

"Don't thank me yet," she remarked, partly because she didn't feel like being thanked for what she was about to do, and partly because she knew he wouldn't be so thankful a minute into it.

She motioned for Aang to stand up and he obeyed, and she took his seat on the log. She gave Aang a once over, and noticed his Air Nomad pants. She had never been allowed to keep her pants on during a spanking; her panties were the only protection she got, if any. Spanking him bare-bottom was out of the question, but the two layers of cloth that made up his pants weren't acceptable either.

"Alright Aang, take your pants off, please." It was a command; the please was nothing more than a formality.

"What?" he said, blushing at her orders, which he clearly wasn't expecting.

"Take off your pants," she repeated, pleased to see the roles of shocker and shocked reversed.

Aang gulped. "Um, my trunks too, or just my pants?"

Katara stifled a laugh, trying to maintain a serious demeanor in light of the role she was taking."Just your pants, Silly," she answered.

"Why?"

"Well first, this won't really work if you have nice soft pants protecting your bottom. And secondly, I want to be able to see what I'm doing," Katara rattled off her reasons in a brisk, firm tone that gave her an air of authority. Part of it was an act, but she played the part well enough.

"I think you just want to see me with my pants off," Aang accused with a wry smirk.

Katara was amused with his flirting, and was more willing to play along after Sokka had pointed out what a powerful bender he was, echoing the premonitions of Aunt Wu. "Given what's about to happen to you, do you really think it's wise to make snide remarks?" she threatened coyly.

"Good point."

The Avatar compliantly pulled his pants down and stepped out of them. Aang was an unnaturally scrawny twelve-year old; not to say he didn't have some muscle, but he was considerably skinnier than any other boy Katara knew.

"Come here, please," she beckoned, and Aang cautiously stepped forward. Katara extended her hand, and Aang took it. Katara led him to her right side, and then gently lowered his wiry frame across her knees. Once he was on her lap, he balanced himself, which made her job much easier. She was amazed at how the Avatar, the most powerful bender in the world, could appear so meek and vulnerable, yet there he was. Deciding to just get on with it, Katara raised her right hand into the air and prepared to spank...but couldn't.

She was afraid to. But she couldn't just openly go back on it now, not when she had come this far.

"Aang, I'm going to give you one more chance to back out of this," she offered, which was really a way to see if she could get out of spanking him. "If you still want me to spank you, I'm not going to go easy on you. You might regret asking for this later."

Aang looked up at her with remorseful, but determined eyes. "No, I know this is what I need."

"Okay then," she answered tentatively. Katara bit her lower lip, but she resigned herself to the task at hand. Trying to imagine that Aang wasn't her best friend (not to mention the Avatar) and simply a naughty boy in need of serious discipline, she gathered up her courage and resolved to give him the spanking that he deserved, and that he had rashly asked for. If nothing else, she would make sure that he never asked for one again.

Assuming her most maternal tone, she began a lecture of sorts to ensure that this didn't become more difficult than it already was. "Aang, this is going to hurt. You may cry or complain as much as you wish, but do not kick your legs or try to escape. And while I'm thinking about it, don't use your bending either."

"Yes ma'am," was his contrite reply.

Katara couldn't help grinning at this sign of respect. Then she looked at his bottom; the trunks shielded most of it from view, but she could see the unique contrast of the vibrant, blue arrow tattoos against his fair skin. She placed her hand on one cheek, soft and smooth. It would not be that way for long.

Now that she was about to begin, the realization that she had never given a spanking in her life suddenly took over her thoughts. She had been spanked enough to know what it felt like to get one, but had never actually watched it. Unsure of what to do and assuming that it was best to imitate the flat surface of the hairbrush her mother had used, Katara straightened her fingers and held them close to each other, creating a paddle of sorts.

SMACK! Katara slapped the area she had been resting her hand on, her first ever spank.

SMACK! She swatted the other cheek, and she could hardly bring herself to look.

SMACK! Back to the first side, Katara was surprised at the mild sting in her hand.

SMACK! Another swat on the second cheek, and she noticed that Aang was twitching from the pain.

SMACK! One more spank, and Katara started to feel more confidant.

SMACK! This one came quicker than the others.

SMACK! That one kept the same brief interval as the last.

SMACK! Katara continued spanking in this rhythm.

SMACK! Aang's leg muscles were starting to stiffen.

SMACK! His bottom seemed to shift in a vain effort to avoid her chastisement.

Spurred on by that small sign of resistance, Katara began to spank Aang harder. To this point, he had not complained, though she could hear a few muffled whimpers dying to escape. Something in her felt compelled to bring those cries out of Aang, so she picked up the pace again.

After about a minute of this, Aang's resistance finally ended, and each swat was followed with a yelp of pain from the young Airbender. Every "Ouch!" grew increasingly louder, yet Aang did not ask for a reprieve, so Katara did not let up.

SMACK! "OUCH!"

SMACK! "OUUCH!"

SMACK! "OUUUCHHH!"

Aang was starting to tremble under her intense discipline, but did his best to hold still. The small parts of his bottom that weren't covered by the trunks were turning hot pink, and Katara could only imagine the state of the rest of his posterior. She continued to dutifully administer the swats, and he continued to utter his simple expression of discomfort while staying put. Katara was impressed with his toughness; she would have been in tears, begging for it to end by now. Deciding that his refusal to do this meant that she wasn't doing her job well enough, she started to spank slower, but made sure every swat was good and hard.

It didn't take many of those for Aang to break his relative silence.

"Katara, this hurts!" he squealed.

"Of-course-it-does," Katara answered him, landing a spank to coincide with every word. "I-told-you-it-would. I-don't-know-what-else-you-expected." By this point, Aang was constantly bawling, not reacting to each swat but instead to the immense pain from all of them. He was also losing his battle to hold still, and Katara had to place her left hand between his shoulder blades to keep him from writhing out of place.

"Katara, pleeeease!" he whined.

"You-asked-for-this-Aang," she scolded, and continued spanking him diligently. Katara was a natural spanker; it was hard to believe she had ever had misgivings about spanking him. Each and every swat was on target, hard as steel, and perfectly timed so that by the time the sting of one started to recede, a fresh sting on the opposite cheek replaced it. It was no coincidence that she was so effective; the rhythm was the same her mother used to perfection on her so many years ago. For she was picturing herself as a little girl, remembering every spanking, and doing her best to follow her mother's tradition.

Aang was past any delusions of self-respect, and was crying quite loudly. Katara did not know it, but her barrage of swats had turned his bottom a bright crimson and welts were starting to form. He was now flailing his arms and legs, almost involuntarily. It simply hurt too much, and he couldn't control himself.

Katara understood that his failure to compose himself meant that she was accomplishing her task. She remembered that her mother always punctuated a spanking with a series of extra hard swats, and she decided to follow that example and end his suffering.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! A half-dozen of the hardest swats she had ever given landed on Aang's unfortunate backside in rapid succession, and Aang started to scream. She decided that it was time to remind him of why he had asked to be spanked in the first place.

SMACK! "I hope you learned something from this!"

SMACK! "It is unacceptable to steal things that don't belong to you!"

SMACK! "And lying to cover your tracks is just plain juvenile!"

SMACK! "How can I trust you if you lie to me and keep secrets from me?"

SMACK! "This is exactly what you deserved, and I'm not sorry for hurting you."

SMACK! "I don't ever want to catch you lying or stealing again, understood?

"YES, KATARA, I PROMISE!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! Katara slapped his well-punished bottom four more times for emphasis, and decided that the spanking was over. Aang lay limp across her knees, and started to weep quietly.

Now that she was no longer disciplining him, Katara felt the strict, motherly instincts that had taken over her during the spanking start to fade, and she felt horrible about the spanking. Perhaps she had gotten carried away? Was Aang going to be angry with her for it? He may have asked to be spanked, but she was pretty sure he didn't expect so thorough a thrashing.

"Aang, are you okay?" she pried, trying to be soothing.

"Yeah," he breathed through sobs. "You weren't kidding when you said you were going to do that properly! I don't think I'll be able to sit for a few days." Katara could sense a trace of humor in this assessment, and it made her feel considerably better.

"Come on, you need a hug," she coaxed, and Aang stood up and threw his arms around Katara. She held him close to her, just as her mother had done to her years ago. He continued to cry on her shoulder, and she rubbed his back gently.

"So, you aren't going to ask for another one, are you?" Katara prodded.

"No," Aang confirmed. "One was bad enough!"

"Do you still feel guilty over the whole map incident?" she asked, and was ready to turn him back over her knee if he showed the slightest indication that he was going to be apologizing for that again.

"No," he informed her. "I don't really feel bad about anything except my bottom right now."

"Good. Now I don't want to hear another word about it, ever. It's in the past. Got it?' Katara asked.

Aang nodded his agreement.

"If I do, I'll give you another spanking," she promised. "With a hairbrush," she amended.

"Ouch," Aang said.

"Now put your pants back on, we don't want Sokka getting suspicious."

The Avatar struggled to get back into his pants; simply bending over seemed to cause his well-spanked behind to swell anew with pain. But he managed to get back into them before Sokka arrived, carrying a huge net of skinned fish that explained his long absence. Katara was grateful, both for the presence of real food, and that he hadn't walked in on what transpired. It would have been difficult to explain.

As the group moved towards their tents to enjoy their supper, Aang leaned towards Katara and whispered into her ear.

"Thank you, Katara. I really needed that. And I know it must have been hard for you."

She shrugged. "It was worse for you, I think. I could get used to it." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.


End file.
